The Big Sleep
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Review
'Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set the standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times 'Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence' - Ross MacDonald
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse ...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First of all, I should say that I can't believe no one else has written a review of this wonderful crime novel. I'm happy to rectify this oversight now.
For me, Raymond Chandler's first novel, published in 1939, stands as not only one of the great crime novels of the 20th century, but one of the best genuinely American prose works in all of literature. Only an ignorant snob could argue that this isn't a piece of literature and a work of art as well as a highly entertaining story of detection. Philip Marlowe is Chandler's laconic private eye hero, an urban knight and man of honour operating in a grim world, a tough guy with a hard shell covering a man of culture and learning. Chandler writes both lines of dialogue and first person narrative to die for, combining a poet's use of metaphor with the hard-edged wit of the mean streets of Los Angeles, whose dark underbelly Chandler explores in his novels.
The plot of this mystery is legendary for its labyrinthine structure as Marlowe takes on a case for the wealthy General Sternwood, getting mixed up in murder, sex and a pornography racket.
I couldn't praise this masterpiece enough. Suffice to say that I consider it to be flawless.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My favourite of all of the Philip Marlowe books by Raymond Chandler - I once watched a documentary on fictitious American private eyes and the critical testimony of two Dashiell Hamnet adherents, brutally harsh and accurate, still couldn't put me off this shop soiled knight in tarnished armour.
Early memories of seeing the first Robert Mitchum starring version of The Big Sleep as a child in the 1970s (Candy Southern hopped up and naked in a big wickerwork chair, Joan Collins as an upper crust grifter, etc) all collided when I finally read this book in the late 1980s, after reading references to Chandler and Hammet in interviews by Frank (Batman: Year One/The Dark Knight Returns) Miller.
While I can appreciate Chandler's way with descriptions, prose style and setting a scene, it's the emotional content of his books that endear me the most to him in crime fiction; I like Marlowe's tough guy character, I like his cheek and most of all, I love Chandler's perpetual habit of never letting Marlowe get the girl.
More than anything, it's the sentimental and bittersweet fleeting assignations and Marlowe's hardboiled observations thereof that move me more than anything else in Chandler's stylistic armoury: the sheer unrequited romanticism in his writing.
I know this isn't the most intellectual review of Chandler's The Big Sleep but I don't watch, read or listen to things from a technical POV - I just want to be entertained and have my emotions stirred up and the emotional frequency that Chandler wrote on presses all the right sentimental buttons in me.
So, poor old Marlowe...he never did see S****r W** again.
If you're unsure of taking the plunge into the Marlowe milieu, don't be - the book is beautifully written and the final paragraph, where the expression 'Mean streets' must surely have come from is SHEER poetry. Only someone who could feel so much could have written something so affecting.
Hammet and Cain and other writers of American crime fiction may be more palatable to aficionados of tough, two fisted detective fiction but Chandler made the emotional themes count as much as the plot and prose themselves and for that, I'll always be a Philip Marlowe fan.
The Big Sleep - a five star rating, no contest.
Early memories of seeing the first Robert Mitchum starring version of The Big Sleep as a child in the 1970s (Candy Southern hopped up and naked in a big wickerwork chair, Joan Collins as an upper crust grifter, etc) all collided when I finally read this book in the late 1980s, after reading references to Chandler and Hammet in interviews by Frank (Batman: Year One/The Dark Knight Returns) Miller.
While I can appreciate Chandler's way with descriptions, prose style and setting a scene, it's the emotional content of his books that endear me the most to him in crime fiction; I like Marlowe's tough guy character, I like his cheek and most of all, I love Chandler's perpetual habit of never letting Marlowe get the girl.
More than anything, it's the sentimental and bittersweet fleeting assignations and Marlowe's hardboiled observations thereof that move me more than anything else in Chandler's stylistic armoury: the sheer unrequited romanticism in his writing.
I know this isn't the most intellectual review of Chandler's The Big Sleep but I don't watch, read or listen to things from a technical POV - I just want to be entertained and have my emotions stirred up and the emotional frequency that Chandler wrote on presses all the right sentimental buttons in me.
So, poor old Marlowe...he never did see S****r W** again.
If you're unsure of taking the plunge into the Marlowe milieu, don't be - the book is beautifully written and the final paragraph, where the expression 'Mean streets' must surely have come from is SHEER poetry. Only someone who could feel so much could have written something so affecting.
Hammet and Cain and other writers of American crime fiction may be more palatable to aficionados of tough, two fisted detective fiction but Chandler made the emotional themes count as much as the plot and prose themselves and for that, I'll always be a Philip Marlowe fan.
The Big Sleep - a five star rating, no contest.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Had to read this for Book Club and loved it in spite of the unselfconscious sexism and homophobia that marks it out as a novel from a different era. Perfect pace and crackling dialogue gave me several laugh out loud moments along with delight at the wit and sharp observation.
The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler's first case for Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe. For me, Marlowe develops in subtlety through the subsequent books, and becomes all the more interesting a character as a result, but in this his first outing, he still charms as a charismatic outsider whose idea of hell would be domestic bliss, and who loves nothing better than a drink, a smoke, an illicit clinch and a dose of hard boiled action to get the blood racing.
The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler's first case for Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe. For me, Marlowe develops in subtlety through the subsequent books, and becomes all the more interesting a character as a result, but in this his first outing, he still charms as a charismatic outsider whose idea of hell would be domestic bliss, and who loves nothing better than a drink, a smoke, an illicit clinch and a dose of hard boiled action to get the blood racing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyably confusing
This was my induction into the noir fiction world, chosen mainly because of the film with Lauren Bacall (my namesake)
I admit that the style and language in "The Big... Read more
I admit that the style and language in "The Big... Read more
Published 20 days ago by LG
Classic crime
'What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. Bently
The start of the Los Angeles private detective
Raymond Chandler, possibly the greatest crime writer of all time, drenches Los Angeles in vivid detail while we follow private detective Phillip Marlowe investigating a blackmail... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sean Wilson-blake
The Big Sleep
This book was ordered for my daughters a levels and turned up within a couple of days of ordering and in excellent quality.
Published 6 months ago by ndc75
Do yourself a favour!
Not sure whether a Chandler fanatic should attempt a fair review of a Chandler classic, so let's at least try to be fair. What COULDN'T he do? Read more
Published 7 months ago by Westham
Historically interesting, but not good in itself
This book may well be important in terms of setting a standard and a style for future detective novels, but it does not stand up today as a good book in its own right. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Peter B
None arrival
Ordered 5 September, part of English A Level coursework, the delay in the delivery is causing problems. May need to rethink my source in future. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Cab
Frustrating and unpleasant
Interesting style of writing, quick-moving plot, and some very nice touches. But annoyingly and unremittingly sexist, to the point of violence, with some homophobia thrown in for... Read more
Published 8 months ago by porridge
A classic
This is the first Raymond Chandler book I have read, but have to say it won't be the last. The writing is great, so easy to read and really gripping. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Brian Hoju
Masterpiece or just another slice of pulp fiction?
"The Big Sleep" is no easy read. It may have spawned the legend of Chandler's hard-boiled, world-weary private eye Philip Marlowe, but as a book it's not perfect, and the plot will... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jl Adcock
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